PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith ended day one at Le Mans on top of the MotoGP time sheets, edging out his factory counterpart, Jorge Lorenzo, on the Movistar Yamaha by just .190 of a second.
“We’ve had a good Friday,” Smith said. “For the team in general—you know, home GP—so at least they can celebrate a little bit. Also you know the fact it’s the Monster Energy GP as well, so it’s good to have one of their riders out front. And finally it’s my Nan and Grand Dad’s 50th wedding anniversary today. I couldn’t be there, but hopefully this is enough to make up for it.”
It wasn’t a completely charmed session for Smith as he and Suzuki’s Aleix Espargaro crashed nearly in unison towards the end of the session. Espargaro’s crash distracted Smith, causing him to miss his brake marker and follow suit. While the crash was a mar on the session it wasn’t enough to overshadow a good day’s work.
“Disappointing way to finish such a positive session, but it keeps you on your toes for the weekend,” Smith said about the crash. “Certainly looks positive for the remainder of the weekend. Obviously I need to keep this type of level into tomorrow—keep on trying to improve a little bit, but yeah, nice way to finish day one.”
As for Lorenzo, he was still working on finding the best set up for the track.
“I think we don‘t have the best set-up yet for this track, but we‘ve still been competitive,” Lorenzo said. “I believe we have some margin for tomorrow, especially to improve the pace. We are still trying different settings to see which one is better. It will be very important to put the bike together correctly and not drop the pace too much during the race.”
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was third ahead of CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. The Brit is looking forward to being back at Le Mans in good health as he was coming back from his hand injury at last year’s French Grand Prix.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was fifth, .491 of a second off of Smith. Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi improved his times in FP2 and dropped below the 1:34 mark, but ended the day sixth ahead of Dani Pedrosa. After a six-week absence to recover from another arm pump surgery, the Repsol Honda rider’s competition level at Le Mans is still an unknown quantity.
Behind Pedrosa was the Espargaro brothers—Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro and his older brother Aleix. Rounding out the top 10 was Yonny Hernandez on the Pramac Ducati.
Dovizioso’s teammate Andrea Iannone was 11th, the Ducati rider struggling at Le Mans with an injured shoulder from a crash at the team’s Mugello test. American Nicky Hayden was 17th, 1.484 seconds behind Smith.
2015 Le Mans MotoGP Day One
Combined Practice Times:
1. Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 1:33.179
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:33.369
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1:33.553
4. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1:33.652
5. Marc Marquez (Honda) 1:33.670
6. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:33.686
7. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:33.725
8. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) 1:33.903
9. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) 1:33.944
10. Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) 1:33.953
